Backstory: Relevant Information or Inconsequential Event?

Today, I’d delighted to welcome my good friend and fellow author, Brenda Hill to my Blog.  A novelist, short story writer, Brenda is the author of two novels, Ten Times Guilty, and Beyond the Quiet, and a non-fiction book, Plot your way to Publication, which I can highly recommend.    Brenda also writes features and restaurant reviews for her local newspaper and teaches novel writing and edits manuscripts on a freelance basis.   Her website  can be found at www.brendahill.com

  A few months back I read Brenda’s article on Backstory, something that many new writers spend too much time on, and I’m glad to say she’s agreed to let me post it here. 

When we begin a new novel, we need to intimately know our characters. We must know their motivations – why they do certain things and what causes them to react to events with warmth or hostility. Otherwise, their strong reactions or nonchalance may seem strange to other people.

So, to prevent our readers from thinking our character is an escapee from the psycho ward, we create backstories for them, inventing histories, naming parents and siblings, all information we hope will bring that character to life on the page. Some writers go into such detail that they fill page after page of character history, even listing grades the character received in school.

Not me.

While I’m a strong believer in plotting my story beforehand, I’m not one who needs to know what day of the week my character washes her hair – unless it’s relevant to the story. That’s the key. Our readers do not need to know every facet of a character’s life – unless that particular facet is an important storyline.

Suppose, for example, I begin a new book and name my main character Lucy. And let’s further suppose I create a northern Minnesota history for her, and after describing her, I want a character trait that other people would consider a bit ‘quirky’ but harmless. While I’m trying to decide what to give her, my husband flips the TV channel to the latest rerun of Arachnophobia, so I decide to give Lucy a strong fear of spiders. She’ll scream and run at the sight of even a harmless garden spider that may have found its way into her apartment or dormitory.

What do I do with that information? I could use it as a comic relief and show this fear as a source of teasing from her friends, but if that’s the case, it’s not very important and isn’t relevant to the story. When you’re writing tight, it should not be included.

But what if I include WHY Lucy’s fear is so strong. Remember, in fiction, we need to show motivations, not only in character conflicts, but we need to know WHY Lucy screams at the sight of a spider. We must remember to be like a child and always ask why, why, why? Why did George slug his brother on graduation night? Why does Lucy have this overwhelming fear of spiders? While most people do not particularly like spiders, most will not go into hysterics when spotting one. So why does Lucy scream and run?

Now we can invent something brilliant, such as a near-fatal black widow spider bite when she was seven. Venomous spiders are rare in Minnesota, but let’s say her parents visited the Twin Cities and bought home a tropical houseplant from Florida, and one of the leafy branches hid this nice, fat, poisonous black spider. Lucy survived the bite, of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be much to the story, but we could create this horrible experience at the hospital and how she was deathly ill.

That event, even though it’s dramatic, is just that – a dramatic event in her history. As with our friends’ and neighbors’ background, we might find the event mildly interesting, but really, who cares? I shouldn’t bore my readers with that bit of backstory unless it relates to the main plot.

If the plot is about Lucy meeting the love of her life while in graduate school and debating whether or not to marry him and move to another town in Minnesota, then the spider background is not an issue. It’s simply an event that happened in her life that is of no interest to anyone else and shouldn’t be mentioned.

But suppose I want to use it in my story? Suppose I want Lucy to overcome her horror of spiders as part of her character growth? If so, I’d need to invent a storyline where spiders could be an issue.

How about if the love of her life is a young man who thinks the curved tail of a scorpion is fascinating, loves to examine the long, hairy legs of a tarantula, and can’t wait to compare the beautiful red markings of different black widows? Lucy adores him beyond everything, or most everything – she’s repelled by his career choice, which, of course, is Arachnology. He wants to study these creatures and write a book about them, so he plans to move from nice, safe Minnesota and live in the states where their species thrive.

Ah hah! Now we have a possible storyline with the character trait as a main source of conflict.

And to make matters worse, we turn up the heat and say he’s just been offered his dream job as an assistant to the country’s foremost authority on spiders, but only on condition that he immediately accept the position and make the move within the next two weeks. He asks Lucy to marry him and accompany him to his new location.

Lucy now has a dilemma: her fear or her lover? She must make a fast decision, one that could affect her entire life. And readers, if I’ve written the story well enough, will turn the pages to see what she decides. Now I’ve taken a character trait and not only used it in my story, but I’ve used it as a major interest of conflict and built a story around it.

How about traits for your characters? I’m sure you can be more imaginative than the fear of spiders, so list several that are of interest to you. Then explore the conflicts each could trigger. If you can develop a trait and use it to build your story, it’s relevant. The others you can disregard – until the next novel.

Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team

My novel, The House on the Shore, set in the Scottish Highlands with its rugged terrain, has an intense scene in the rocky gorges of the moors and mountains, and when I was researching, two team members of Wasdale Mountain Rescue came to my rescue…supplying technical details of rescue in rugged terrain and helping me to create the stupendous scenes in the novel. Thank you gentlemen!

 

CELEBRATING

The House on the Shore ISBN 978-1-935407-24-9

and

Support the

Incredible Volunteer Mountain Rescue Teams

Midnight June 4^th, 2009 – Midnight June 17^th, 2009

 

To celebrate the release of The House on the Shore, a romantic suspense novel set in the remote Scottish Highlands, a deeply suspenseful novel with intriguing plot twists, and harrowing mountain rescue scenes, my publisher, Vanilla Heart Publishing and I, are pleased to announce we will donate $1 per copy sold during the time period above to the Wasdale Mountain Rescue, to see their video, which provides education, training, facilities, equipment, and more to this incredible group of rescue volunteers.

 To register your purchase of Print or Kindle editions, please email VHPPromoTeam@vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com with your name, email, and the info of your purchase including edition (Kindle or Print), and the last 3 digits of your order number. All Ebook sales are automatically counted by our Ebook Catalog detail counter, so no additional ‘work’ is necessary for Ebook purchases.

Every dollar donated goes to a great cause, with volunteers who make a difference and save lives, and now, …YOU can make a difference!

Valentine’s Day Release

What a busy three months!   Life has been on big rush ever since Vanilla Heart accepted my submission for The House on the Shore.  Not only did the cover and synopsis appear on Amazon.com and other online bookstores, but it will also be available in libraries in both the UK and USA.  WooHoo!!!

 

 

 Set in the Highlands of Scotland, this visually magical tale takes the reader on a journey from the remote shores of Loch Hourn to the singular beauty of Cape Cod. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for those of you who might be considering buying a copy, here’s a short excerpt:

 

 

Her concentration was broken by the shriek of frantic barking.  She tore her gaze away from the screen and looked out of the kitchen window.  A tall, dark-haired man was making his way up the crescent-shaped beach, doing a weird twisting dance, holding his right arm above his head.  With his left he pushed off the two boisterous, snapping collies.

“Oh hell,” she groaned.  She threw open the door and shouted.  “Ensay!  Rhona!  Heel!”

The dogs instantly stopped snapping at the stranger’s ankles and ran to their mistress.  Anna leaned against the door frame and waited while the figure strode confidently across the grass towards her, his well-muscled body covering the rough ground with long, purposeful strides.  His jet black hair showed a little grey at the temples, the cut slightly longer than was considered acceptable for a man she judged to be in his forties.  But somehow it suited him.

He stopped a foot from her door, close enough for her to smell the lemon spice of his cologne.  Now that she could see him more clearly, she noticed the laughter lines around his eyes and mouth, hinting at a softer side to his character.  His body was lean, the outline of his muscles visible through the shirt he wore.  A faint white scar creased his right cheek, and she thought it gave his face a handsome rugged look.  He gazed at her with dark brown eyes and smiled, slow and warm, and for some reason her breathing quickened.

With just one look she knew he was trouble.

“Hi, there.  I know I’m trespassing, but do you think you could ask your dogs not to rip off my thigh?”

Anna drew herself up to her full height, which was barely up to his shoulder.  “They’re guard dogs and only doing their duty,” she said stiffly.  The dogs sat at her silent signal, but their eyes remained fixed on the stranger.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m having engine trouble and I can’t get a signal.”  He indicated his mobile phone.

“That’s because there are no transmitters.”

“Oh, then could I borrow your phone?  I need to contact the nearest boatyard for some advice.”

“I don’t have a phone.”

He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.  “Look, I haven’t slept for twenty-four hours and I’m beat.  Sandpiper, that’s my yacht, developed a problem soon after I left Stornaway.”  He paused as her words registered.  “Did I hear right?  You don’t have a phone?”

“No, I don’t, so I’m afraid I can’t help you.  I suggest you weigh anchor, turn your boat around, and head west out of the loch.”

“Perhaps I should’ve introduced myself.  I’m Luke Tallantyre, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.”  He offered his hand.  She didn’t take it.

“Anna, Anna MacDonald.  Yachts are always straying into the loch at this time of year.  Their crews seem to think this is some sort of hostel.  Well, it’s not, and I still don’t have a phone.”

“Okay, so where do I catch the bus to town?”  His eyes lingered on her face.  “Oh, no.  You’re about to tell me there isn’t a bus either.  Aren’t you?”

Anna nodded.  The motion sent sunlight gliding through her auburn hair.  “That’s right.  Welcome to Kinloch Hourn, otherwise known as the Loch of Hell.”

“The name fits,” Luke muttered.  “What sort of place doesn’t have a phone or a bus service in this day and age?”

“How about the remotest glen in the Highlands?  Up here, one man and his dog constitute a crowd.  And before you ask, there are no shops either, unless you count Mrs McCloud in the village, but she only opens on alternate days.  The butcher’s van calls every Thursday afternoon, and the library service visits once a month.  I think that about covers all the local amenities.  Oh yes, there’s a mobile bank too, but that only comes once a fortnight.  The school closed last year.  But you’re in luck…there’s a hotel and it has a phone.”

“So there is a God after all.”

“However, its twelve miles down the road in that direction,” she replied, pointing vaguely to some distant place.

You’ve come up with an amazing idea for a novel, but what’s next? Part 3.

 

  

You’ve written your outline and/or plotted your novel.  You’ve named your characters and given them a background, and are itching to put pen to paper, but what about the setting for your novel?

 

Many seasoned novelists will tell new authors to write about what they know, and its good advice.  But most people see reading as a form of escapism from the humdrum of everyday life. 

 

Just as life experiences often given us ideas for novels, places we travel to can often be the source of inspiration when it comes to settings.  For example, when I set out to write my first novel, Three Weeks Last Spring, I had recently returned from a holiday in Seattle, Washington.  Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands are spectacular.  I realised that it wouldn’t take much to upset the ecological balance of the area.  An oil spill from a tanker and the wildlife, in particular, the seabirds and mammals, would be facing a catastrophe, equal only to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska. That vacation, not only gave me the setting for my novel, but also the idea for the story. 

 

I knew I wanted to set my second novel in Scotland, but I needed an idea for a story, and a setting.  Having lived there for twenty years I had travelled the length and breadth of the country, but I also had first hand knowledge of the offshore oil industry.  I recalled a visit to the west coast, and the drive along the single-track road to Loch Hourn, a fjord-like sea loch, and decided it would be a wonderful setting for a novel. 

 

But what to write about? 

 

A little further south lies Loch Kishorn, another sea loch, and the site of the now defunct Howard Doris Construction yard.  I tried to imagine how the occupants of the three small settlements on the shore, known collectively as Kishorn, must have felt when the Highland Council granted permission for Howard Doris to use the loch as a construction facility for offshore oil platforms.

 

From that setting, and my knowledge of the offshore industry, the idea for The House on the Shore, evolved. 

 

So you see setting can be used as a plot devise.  An isolated Scottish Glen, a bankrupt factitious Laird, desperate to salvage his family fortunes, and an offshore construction company seeking to build a deepwater facility, became the ingredients for a romantic suspense novel.  But it’s a novel based on fact.

 

As a writer you should always be aware of your surroundings – you never know your next vacation or trip to the countryside could be the setting for a novel.

 

The House on the Shore is due to be released under the Vanilla Heart label next month.

You’ve come up with an amazing an idea for a novel, so what’s next? Part 2

While I out walking with my Border collie, Lucy, the other day I thought about the plot for my next novel.  I’ve been working on this manuscript for nearly a year now, and have got no further than Chapter three.  No doubt you’re wondering why I haven’t finished it.

 

There are two reasons.

 

Firstly, although I had completed The House on the Shore over a year ago and had been submitting it to agents, I decided to revise the manuscript – not once, but twice. This entailed adding some 24,000 words to the original manuscript, so what had started out as a 70,000 word single-title suspense romance finally became a 95,000 word novel.  Did I make the right decision in revising the manuscript?  You bet!  It will be published in February 2009 by Vanilla Heart Publishing. 

 

The second reason for not completing my third novel is due in to the fact that I felt the plot was lacking something.  The idea originally came to me while I was sitting on a beach on Gasparilla Island in January 2006.   I knew the basic premise was sound.  My characters have depth and by that I mean they are not one-dimensional – when I think about them, I can see them acting through the events I have planned for them.  I can even imagine snatches of dialogue, and occasionally I dream about them.  In other words, I know what makes them tick.  They have the personality, wit, and intelligence to overcome the problems they encounter during the course of the novel.  

 

So what was wrong with the plot and how did I rectify it?

 

By asking myself questions or playing “the what if game.”  I already knew, “Who,” “Where” and “When,” but “What and “Why” eluded me.  I knew how my story began and how it would end. 

 

My problem was how to introduce my hero and make his meeting with the heroine plausible.   Originally, I had planned to have my hero follow the heroine from the airport and then contrive to meet her by accident.  But it didn’t feel right. 

 

I put the manuscript to one side and worked on a short story.  When that was complete, I emailed a friend who happens to be a fellow writer and we tossed ideas back and forth for a few days.  I also tried to imagine what I would do if I were in a position similar to that of my heroine.  It was only by doing this and asking myself questions that I finally reached a solution I was happy with.  I re-wrote my plot outline – the key events and points I wanted to achieve during the course of the story.  When I started writing again the words came easily. 

 

If you don’t have a writing friend, someone you can bounce ideas off, I suggest you put aside your work-in-progress, and spend a few days away from the computer, or work on something else.  If that fails, there are a number of excellent books on plotting; Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon, and Holly Lisle’s Plot Clinic are excellent.  Both are guaranteed to get the imagination fired up and working.